The COVID-19 Wild West Thread (Read 601 times)

I’m sorry that you are uncomfortable here. As stated in the original post for this thread, just read is generally unmoderated. As stated in the original post for this thread, this thread is generally unmoderated. Feel free not to participate in this thread if you do not like it.

Fair enough. If this is an unmoderated thread, so be it

 

Same attitude of all bad apples.

You don't know anything about me at all.

What seemed to get us here was the following set of words, typed by me, which I shall repeat:

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If you are drunk and assaulting crew or passengers on an airplane, Circa 2009 me was ready to kick your ass.

If you come at someone on an airplane with a knife, circa 2009 me was ready to assess the situation and kick your ass.

If you had a bomb on an airplane, circa 2009 me was ready to assess the situation, kick your ass, and try to disable the bomb.

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The stuff in the "if" part of those sentences is pretty goddamn relevant, I would think. If you want to talk about police brutality, we can. Police union power, sure. Want to discuss people getting killed for doing something while black or brown? Right there with you. Edited to add: if you want to talk about ICE and abuse of POC, putting kids in cages, and the secret police now showing up in DC/Portland/etc, well I have lots of feelings about all that. And my bet is that they are more in line with how you feel than you currently believe.

My job had one purpose and one purpose only. If you cannot see that from the set of conditions I laid out... and if you want to say the stuff yall have, well, that's not really much of a conversation. If you want to get me dumped from runningahead for that, ok then.

I don't know what THE FUCK, but ok.

 

Same attitude of all bad apples.

Also winners.

Oh, perhaps some of my other comments about my store have filtered into the mindset too. COVID (see? on topic) has made people, at best, tense. And, at worst, much worse than simply "tense". The wild west. Here in Indiana, some people haaaate wearing masks. 

To recap:

1. Yes, I have broken up fights in my parking lot. What, am I supposed to let people wail on each other? With innocent people wandering up? Well, no. Should I have called the cops? In one situation, I did! Cops aren't Harry Potter and aren't going to magically show up "poof!" from thin air. And I never said how I 'broke up' the fights. Ain't like I went after them like "a karate man" (Trading Places pop reference, settle down). I also had to help break up a fight between the store owner's wife and a customer. I suppose I could have just stood there, but I did not. That was a weird day.

2. Yes, I have "tossed" people from my store. This is not a literal statement and I didn't throw anyone through a window (Beverly Hills Cop pop reference, settle down). Didn't bum rush anyone out. But I did compel them to leave via The Force of my voice. I think the employees that these folks were abusing at the time appreciated it. They seemed to, anyway. As did the female customer who was feeling mighty uncomfortable by another dude I metaphorically "tossed". Retail is hard. Usually it's simply asking customers to go back to their cars and return with masks. Or getting involved as to why my cashier can't sell to the couple when they don't have IDs and the guy in the couple goes off Yosemite Sam like on the cashier.

3. Have I "caught" shoplifters? Eh a few times. Missed many. Some are sheepish about it, some overcompensate by being violent.

How I respond is situationally dependent. Which brings us back to planes. No, in fact, I did not respond to drunk guys throwing punches (something I have done several times) in the same way I would respond to a person with a knife (something which is more theoretical as it never really happened). My response would depend on what cat was doing with the knife at the time.

More often, when I was called upon to help, it was for a medical emergency. That didn't happen much. 

But anyway, situational awareness and situational response are important. 

So, no, I'm not going to get super worked about how folks have been done wrong by the moderators of a free message board about running. Go find something else to be pissed about, yo.

Like COVID itself. Or kids in cages. Or secret police. Or young black men (and women) being killed for doing something while black. Etc etc etc.  

But a message board?

Come on man.

Your post is good Rlopez and your points are all valid on issues we face today, but words matter. Stop talking about kicking people's asses as a former officer of the law. That's all.

I don't know what has happened to you on your journey here, so I apologize that any language of mine... both straightforward and slang... has made you feel any negative emotion whatsoever. That, like, was not my intention. I don't know you and until you nuked Trent a few days ago, I've never heard of you. And you are right - words matter. So, for one, calling out a mod by telling him he is very bad is sorta... well, maybe don't lecture others on how words matter. Same way with coming at me with all the crap you just did.

Aside from that, I wasn't a "cop" much, and I was never a cop in the traditional sense that you are thinking about this. Which is probably why someone PMed you and told you that I'm not a cop. It doesn't come up much and it never came up while I was on the job. It was the nature of the job (which ended in December of 2016). That's fine; I'm not going into any of this here. I never once, NOT ONE TIME, talked about "kicking someone's ass" in an assault sense, not really. And I think most people get that. You don't, but I have explained enough.

You be aware of your own words. I'll be aware of mine.

As you were. I've been basically gone for a few years. I returned because I noticed an influx of bullies and at least one message board lawyer recently, so I decided to poke back in. Now I've seen what's what. Might stay, might not.

Everyone take care of each other.

My curling league